Kivan the Archer

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Playing a new BG1 adventure with tutu installed and chose Kivan configured as an archer. On the way south from Bergost, Kivan one-shotted an ogrillon for like 21 or 24 pts of damage (I don't recall exact amount - only that it was somewhat over 20 pts).

At this time, Kivan was level 2, using composite long bow and normal unenchanted arrows.

I dunno if maybe this should be in BG2 forum due to the nature of tutu and kits but I was stunned to see this kind of damage output.

Had never played an archer in any BG2 adventure before because I was always turned off by their inability to wear metal armors or to specialize in weapons....but after seeing lowly lvl 2 Kivan's performance, I'm going to have to rethink it.....
....how did Kivan score such an extreme hit at such a low level? I don't think it was a critical hit.

 

I think Ogres are his racial enemy, which may include orgrillons. That would have helped.

 

The only think I don't like about archers is that you need to keep SOOO many arrows stocked all the time. They run out really quick.

 

Don't be suprised!

Iv'e gotten an archer to do 51 damage with a friggin' arrow in BG:SOA!!!

..Don't ask me how.....or I shall forcibly reverse you gender.

 

Yea Archer kit is really overpowered. Kivan has almost 70% of kills. The rate of fire, good chance to hit and high damage means he is like machine gun.

In a fight vs 5 or 6 enemies, Kivan will drop most or all of them while the melee types tie them up in close combat.

It was so totally extremely unbalancing that I stopped the game near the end of chapter 5.

 

I don't think the Archer kit is overpowered at all. If you are good enough to hit an enemy in the eye, the arrow will hit his/her/its brain and that's the end of the story. As a matter or fact, any good archer should be able to kill enemies with much more ease than any good melee fighter, and I consider that this has been very well represented in this kit. It's not all good news, the archer is a pretty useless front liner, and if you run out of arrows you are pretty much in trouble. I think this balances the kit.

 

The numbers don't lie.

 

Colthrun, sure it may be realistic, but for the sake of balance, it is sure not fun with someone that shoots fast, hard and kills the majority of the enemies.

But I've been thinking. Would a party consisting of Yeslick, Kagain, and Kivan be good? Yeslick and Kagain are fighters with heaps of HP and take all the punishment while Kivan shoots them down. And if the Dwarves take too much damage, Yeslick can be there and heal, and in later stages, so can Kivan.

Also, with only 3 in the group, they will level up like hell.

The only problem with this calculation is that Yeslick and Kagain hates eachother, Kagain is evil while the rest are not, and that you need a main character in the group as well. How to fix that? Just replace Yeslick with your own Dwarven Fighter/Cleric with 19 Constitution that is neutral and never go above 18 in reputation.

 

That trio could easily take most any enemy down in short order. The archer is an incredible killer. Fact is, if you're playing TuTu...make the protagonist an archer and you can be even better than Kivan. Natural 19 dex where I think Kivan's is 17. Add the tomes and you are going to be amazed at how fast enemies go down...your two dwarf tanks will have very few kills....very few. If you consider that your protagonist archer can also be a scout, the can clear out most enemies while scouting the maps. With speed enhancing boots, shadow thief armor to boost stealth, magical arrows and a bow that adds even more THACO and DMG, the Archer is like a friggin force of nature...its way overpowered.

I've noticed some enemies will (randomly?) ignore the front lines and go for the support. With The Vault add-on, I think some enemies will home on a low hit point character to the exclusion of all others....this can be exploited under some conditions, but it usually means a trip to the temple to resurrect somebody.

 

As I said, Subra, the Dwarves are only there to take punishment. There is no way that Kivan would be able to survive more than three hits from Sarevok for example.

 

More like 1 hit if you play on the highest difficulty...maybe 2.